Corrugated containers are frequently used to temporarily store foods that have been heated. For example, corrugated boxes are often used to store pizzas during delivery. Such a corrugated box is traditionally made from a triple sheet of paper (doublefaced corrugated) that has been selectively cut and creased to facilitate folding the sheet of corrugated material into a box. Desirable characteristics for a food container such as a box include sufficient rigidity to prevent collapse of the box under strain, sufficient thermal characteristics to prevent the food item from severe temperature change, and sufficient ventilation to allow escape or retention of moisture from the interior of the box to prevent the food item from becoming soggy or dehydrated.
Prior pizza boxes or containers suffer from several disadvantages. Most pizza boxes suffer from a complicated assembly procedure requiring many folds. This tedious and time consuming procedure typically requires pizza vendors to assemble a multitude of boxes before they prepare the pizzas so that customers can be served quickly during peak times. Since the assembled boxes require more space than the flat layers from which they are formed, these boxes take up precious storage space. In addition, more man hours are necessary to assemble the boxes.
In addition, most pizza boxes also suffered from being susceptible to grease which can weaken the box and from cheese sticking to the interior surface of the box. Further, many pizza boxes generate inedible cardboard cut out portions during their assembly.
Commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,094,385 which is incorporated herein by reference, solved most of these problems and provided a strong, rigid box that excellently controlled the interior humidity and moisture of the box and which was very simple to assemble. The present invention improves the containers disclosed therein.